UC Merced has received a $750,000 boost to its mission to invest in the San Joaquin Valley’s unique cultural, creative and linguistic wealth by working with the region’s people to strengthen communities and champion social justice.
The university’s Center for the Humanities will use a three-year Mellon Foundation grant to expand its established partnerships with communities. The grant supports the Public Humanities Design Studio, a laboratory space on campus that sustains faculty, staff, graduate students and community members collaborating on humanities projects.
The design studio is a place to break loose from virtual labs and offices, gather and apply the study of values, culture and the human spirit to tasks such as consultation, content development and training.
The Mellon funding, which went into effect Aug. 1, will support two faculty members and eight graduate students per summer to work on community-engaged humanities projects that emphasize social justice and the future of UC Merced and the region it serves. The funding will support community lunch meetings, an annual “boot camp” about public humanities, book club discussions, a symposium and a speaker series.
The Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities, guided by a core belief that these are essential to human understanding. The foundation seeks to help build communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking.
“This grant is intended to help the university and the broader community imagine the kind of futures we want,” said Christina Lux , managing director of the Center for the Humanities. “We are coming at it from the humanities angle, with disciplines such as history, literature and philosophy. We want the community to talk to us and work alongside us.”
